Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cca04@keele.ac.uk (P.J. Mitchell) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Will the Real Fundamentalists Please Stand Up? Message-ID: Date: 20 Jul 90 07:45:11 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 49 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu From article , by cms@dragon.uucp: As a Methodist (Protestant) it is my understanding that the use of terms like fundamentalist, conservative and liberal are based upon the view taken of Biblical interpretation. As such there can be Catholics of all the above persuations (and I know some). I would define the three terms something along the lines of, Fundamentalist. =============== One who believes the Bible to be completely and literally true, and therefore inerrant and non-contradictory. This having been achieved by the direct action (inspiration) of the Holy Spirit upon the Biblical authors. Fundamentalists tend to see the Bible literally as the word of God, and therefore all parts equally valid. Conservative. ============= One who believes the action of the Holy Spirit upon the authors of the Bible renders all of it useful for teaching and guidance etc, but not necessarily inerrant as such. Convervatives view the Bible as divine revelation/information, if not a verbatim quote. So parts of the Bible may be considered allegorical, but not discarded. Liberal. ======== One who believes that the Bible must be treated like all other documents because it was written by fallible humans. Liberals claim this does not detract from the importance of the Bible, but view it as the recorded experience, attitudes and wisdom of the faithfull over several millenia. Hence any percived differences are either errors (original or documentary) or simply reflect humanity's changing view of God over the years. The theology espoused by people in these categories is presumably moulded by their view of scripture and their interpretation of it. However, there is of course still scope for many different interpertations within all of these definitions, and plenty of overlap. I hope that this is informative rather than obscuring. -- --Paul Mitchell (CMA N.Cheshire, DoD#0145) | Computer Centre, JANET: cca04@uk.ac.keele.seq1 | University of Keele, Keele, USENET: cca04@seq1.keele.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk | Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, U.K. BITNET: cca04%seq1.keele.ac.uk@ukacrl | 0782 - 621111 ext 3302